Business

ZIMBABWE will get $7 million from the World Bank to fight the coronavirus pandemic despite being in arrears with the Washington-based lender, the Bretton Woods institution has announced, signifying the success of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s pleas for the global lenders to support Zimbabwe in its fight against the pandemic.
Professor Mthuli

THE South African government National Transport Movement (NTM) says a decision to shut down South African Airways (SAA) and form a new airline has been reached.
In a statement, the Department of Public Enterprises said that the new airline would ideally have a mix of governmental and private ownership.
In terms of

In more developed countries whose economies are better off than most in sub-Saharan Africa, a strong safety net of social programmes, unemployment insurance, and direct payments will make all the difference in the depth of the current COVID-19 induced downturn and will speed up economic recovery.
But for poorer countries, and

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – South Africa’s rand climbed to a two-week best on Wednesday as investors found more reasons to buy risk assets with a number of major economies readying to reopen their economies and hopes of a coronavirus treatment resurfacing.
At 1530 GMT the rand was 2.08 percent firmer at

Farmers started selling their tobacco crop on Wednesday after the coronavirus outbreak delayed the opening of auctions, which provide vital foreign currency inflows, by more than a month.
Tobacco is the second biggest earner of foreign exchange after gold, and last year generated US$747 million in exports mainly to China and

The 2020 tobacco marketing season officially starts today, with the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) expressing satisfaction with the level of preparedness at all auction floors, which have complied with Covid-19 preventive measures, including setting up clinics and isolation sites.
A senior Government official is expected to preside over the

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Thursday said it had suspended one of its economists for leaking plans to phase out the use of foreign currencies for the payment of local transactions at the end of 2022.
The currency roadmap leaked online Wednesday “is not official as it has not

FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube says annual inflation in Zimbabwe will go down to Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) levels of 3.7 % by 2024 on the backdrop of de-dolarisation strategies which will stabilise the economy.
The predictions contained in the document, Macro-Economic Policy Measures to Support the 5-Year De-Dollarisation

Zimbabwe’s inflation rate jumped to 676.39 percent year-on-year in March from 540.16 percent the previous month, statistical agency Zimstat said on Tuesday.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation increased to 26.59 percent during the same period compared to 13.52 percent in February, said Zimstat.
Last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that